Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
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THE GAME STOP APOCALYPSE — I never thought that GameStop stocks would be monitored by the president of the United States.
I never thought gaming stock would be the subject to get Ted Cruz and AOC to agree or result in the once-beloved public trading app Robinhood becoming a perceived ironic metaphor for the Sheriff of Nottingham.
I also never thought our fourth Wednesday of January — following storming-the-Capitol Wednesday, impeachment Wednesday, and inauguration Wednesday — would be mess-with-the-hedge-funds Wednesday.
This feels like Occupy Wall Street but twice as funny and twice as effective. I'm shocked that months of in-person protests and arrests in 2011 are rivaled by a few days of chaotic Redditors outsmarting billionaires and wreaking uncertain levels of economic havoc.
If you're anything like me, you're watching this whole thing with equal parts amusement, anxiety and confusion. Google and Wikipedia have taught us much about the economy in the last few days, but the stock market remains a mythical beast with strange rules.
Where do we go next? Is this a blip on the radar or a new market trend? Is it good or bad? Will this hurt our economy and the average person, or is it overdue comeuppance for the corporate elite? What laws and regulations will come from this, and who should influence the stock market? There's a ton of coverage — including KSL.com's — that asks and answers these important questions.
If you're like me and are looking for a succinct resource, here's an everyday person perfectly explaining the situation.
a normal person explains what's happening on the stock market: pic.twitter.com/zKKvULCirX
— Avalon Penrose (@avalonpenrose) January 27, 2021
Ok, so it's not a serious explanation. But it is a perfect representation of how this week feels to the average person just trying to keep up.
I've searched "what's shorting stock?" and read about it three times already, along with at least twelve articles I have no way of remembering next month. I don't understand economics (Is this economics? Or finance? Aren't they related?) and at this point, I'm too afraid to ask. Like a backseat driver, I have opinions that seem great to me but don't help in practice.
But sometimes it's OK for all the market intricacies to not stick in your brain. Sometimes it's hard. If you're in my boat — learning and doing your best to keep up, but mainly just laughing incredulously at the chaos — this clip is what you need right now.
Have You Seen This?
